Black American Barbara Reynolds speaks out on Redsk*ns mascot name, 1993 By William Katz Though Black History Month has made some inroads into Ivy League institutions from Harvard to Stamford, respect for Native American contributions to the country remain at the starting gates. Twenty years ago [USA Today, 2/5/1993] columnist Barbara Reynolds jump-started a campaign when she excoriated the Washington DC football “redskins” “Picture the mayhem if teams were named coons, white trash or Jew boys,” she wrote. “Yet the name redskins is just as obnoxious to many Native Americans, who feel it reduces them to a cartoon or mascot.” As a woman of color in “a predominantly black city with a black mayor,” she called on fellow African Americans “to lead the charge for respect for Native Americans.” In 2013 we have a two-term President of African descent, a First Lady of African and Native American lineage, and two delightful Black Indian children who romp on the First Lawn. But few colleges, museums or schools are exploring how important was this mixture for the first five hundred years after Columbus. Beginning in the 1950s New York schools began to celebrate “Negro History Day,” later expanded it to a week, and then to a month. But little was ever said about the many contributions of First Peoples, and their five-century-old “alliance in the woods” with Africans – though it challenged European colonialism and white supremacy, slavery and exploitation long before 1776. Reverend Barbara Reynolds’ column of a generation ago drew heavily from my Black Indians: A Hidden Heritage, and phone interviews with me, to support her demand that knowledge of “this historic alliance” end should end the use of racially insulting team names, and to stress that African Americans, including those who excel on these teams, “lead the charge.” This charge is still in its early stages. Native American History Month celebrations rarely take place on college campuses, but some leading universities now offer courses in Black Indian Studies. November is Native American History Month and it is time to catch up with our history. Does the college, high or elementary school in your city or town note this story? Does any discuss the alliances fashioned by of two peoples of color that bravely challenged European colonialism’s march across the Americas – long before George Washington, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson spoke up?
Posted on: Sat, 16 Nov 2013 20:54:02 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015